Another great 85 show, the spring and summer had some real gems. This show is one of the gems! Supplication was never the same once they stopped playing last lighting but this is the closest they come to pulling it off like an 83 supplication. Anyway, awesome stranger, stager Lee, GDTRFB etc. 4 stars as Phil is loud and ON as is the whole band.

First set crazy fingers is awesome love the supplication I have always love supplication. The whole show is killer the hell in the bucket slams hard. The real stand out for me though is the feel like a stranger it sounds like they were gonna go into I know you rider for a second they were really rocking.

Excellent sound. The speed is off just a little. Songs are south of flat for the key they should be in.

Always curious when an orphaned Supplication makes an appearance.
Obviously there is something in the noodling that takes them there.

He's twice as big as me!

Exquisite recording... Had wonderful seats for this show in pavilion about 4 rows back center of what I remember. Of all shows I've been to the " Stranger" is by far the best I've heard. It was the way it came on with the tuning prior... Jerry was ready to go waiting on the others... Just pure raw sound of Tiger...

Great sound. One of the best of 85' Give it several WHIRLS.LOVE..Forever Grateful>Forever Dead!!!!! Long live Pat Kelly!! Only an Irishman..It's my Island@!@!@!@!@!

Just graduated from high school the week before and it was off to Saratoga then Hershey!!!! This was a great show, even though we were stuck on the lawn, Remember the Goony Birds? and the entrance over the bridge? MOOO!!!! Not enough urinals people pissin everywhere, but who cares the Dead were Jammin!!!!

Unique setlists and very good playing here . The 1st set Crazy Fingers>Supplication>High time is excellent and the 2nd set Stranger>Eyes really rocks and has a great transition. '85 is a year stacked with creativity and it is, dare I say a "peak" time.

this was my 1st show. i was amazed when naked guy ran across the boardwalk...actually thought it was part of the show

This was my first show needless to say I was forever transformed. The Charlie Miller upgrade to this recording is superb. It is a fine example of the Grateful Dead peaking and in top form in 1985. I ended up seeing 104 shows by the time Jerry passed this show has always and still does blow my mind every time I listen to it.

Wow, So Pat Kelley was the name of the guy hanging from the balcony. Thats funny. Several years after the SPAC show I was at a party of some sort and I met that guy. He was still talking about that show.
I also remember some of the crowd busting through the catwalk to the inside of the theater. Most got wacked by security, but there was a naked guy that got through, and for some reason the security guards did not want to touch him - so they let him dance.

Another great show from June '85. The first set starts off with a Midnight Hour bust out that leads into an energetic Bertha. I love bluesy Bobby and Rooster doesn't disappoint. Stagger Lee is average but the El Paso>Crazy Fingers>Supplication Jam>High Time segment is classic. Two rare first set tunes with an excellent jam in between. The Bucket>Don't Ease set closer is very energetic and a nice finish before the break.
The second set starts with an amazing trio of Stranger>Eyes>Goin' Down the road, which contains a great jam in each song. The Eyes in particular really stands out. The post Space Truckin is average but leads into Spoonful which I love hearing followed by a beautiful, soulful rendition of Black Peter. Lovelight closes things out on a high note. The Johnny B. Goode encore is a nightmare that totally collapses in the middle. It is incredibly awful Baby Blue is a nice make up selection.

Nice show. Cool set list. Good remaster by Charlie. A little thin on bass.

Is this the one where just as they started playing JBG, the skies opened up and it started POURING? I vaguely remember IAONBB afterward as I got lost in the crown trying to find our bus. If so, please read my review for 83-6-18 :) It's really a review of this show. But either way it all worked out in the end.. I found the bus!

One of the first cassette boots I had back in the day.
The rollicking, rip-roaring segues between Stranger> Eyes> GDTRFB are seriously fun.

It wasn't me!! I would have been 7 yrs old, and therefore not in a position to hang off balconies. But I am, of course, willing to admit that there may be more than one pat kelley out there.

yeah I was there too..
great show, I was one of the people who was content at just listening and dancing from outside the gate fence. until the crowd out there got crazy and crashed it on the 1st song. well the gooney birds in my system were in full throttle and I got swept into the show, lost my footing and got slammed on the head by security. I managed to slip away and enjoy the rest of the show inside. It was luck that the goonies were making me forget the huge knot on my head...
Still, a fantastic show! I love the SPAC!!

Great show...my friends and I drove from groton, ct and camped out the day before. At Showtime, We were able to make our way into the pavilion area after many heads crashed through the guard on the walking platforms during Midnight Hour. We arrived inside between jerry and bobby up top. I had three friends with me. Well two of these guys decided to hang off the balcony. One being the person Bobby is referring to just prior to the start of Stagger Lee...Mr.Pat Kelley. I couldnt believe Bobby was yelling at my friend....was this really happening??? This guy was a little crazy..actually still is....Anyway, just wanted to convey this funny story. The show was real nice with some great highlights...first set crazy fingers, Stranger>eyes...baby blue.....more rain,,,83, 84 and 85 it rained like crazy....we had fun though...those were the days of camping, open fires in the field across the street and wacko friends like Kelley... enjoy the show.

I've been a die hard Dead Head for 21 years, got on the bus in 87, and have been to countless Dead shows in the Jerry days, not to mention JGB, Weir and post GD shows, and still to this very day they still do not seize to amaze me! And this show is one of the reasons why. Since I've found this site its like the bus came by again! Thank You everyone involved for giving me a chance to hear, (and feel) the shows that I missed. I'm lovin' it.

I agree w/ other reviewer, re: weir pussing out on what would have been a MASSIVE Lazy Lightning! Jerry and Phil, et al were so into it particularly at the second "attempt" (I was there, too and everyone thought it was coming....), I mean, if you listen to it, the whole band-weir included-was there! oh well, definitely an epic first set indeed, great old time energy; SPAC did bring out the best in the boys, esp from 83-85 (skipped 88...)never thought I'd hear myself say it, but also, arguably the bestplayed? (is there such a thang??!)hell in a bucket?!! sick energy....SPAC rocked!!! as did all of upstate NY GD peeps!!!

First show, gobs of memories.
Somethign can be said for the awkwardness after the Rooster & before the Stagger Lee. There are large "I" Beams that run across the edges of the balcony, and some really silly people were crawling onto them and dancing (they crashed the balc right before the set started). Well, the words were a little caustic, but the reasoning was sound.
THen it was broken up by a horrible joke into an incredible Stagger Lee.
Goosebumps.

any chance of a .shn download for this?
great concert by the way.

I was wondering which of these is the well circulated "Amy" tape. At any rate, if you are the 1% of heads who haven't heard this show yet, get to it. Looks like this is the version to get.
About as pure a 1985 era GD show as there is. And the best first set I ever witnessed in 120 shows over 12 years. Some wondered if Jer was getting cut off w/supplication...nah..they play it out as they did at other 85 shows...just without the Lazy Lightning. Second set doesn't suck either!
The finest east coast Concert venue they ever played.

That first step is a doozy....this makes it all worth it...just hearing the boys nuk it up while this dude is hangin strong arm like a dumb yankee fan a couple of weeks ago.

This is a nice upgrade; excellent sound--Thanks, Charlie!
As for the show, you're in for one of the finest Crazy Fingers of the 80's decade, a spine-tingling High Time, and a surprising Supplication jam among the highlights.
Of course, if you just want to hear something funny, check out Phil railing against the idiot who climbed atop a tower and held up the show for a while...it's actually an ominous sign of things to come some 8-10 years later when morons from everywhere the Dead went came out of the woodwork to ruin a good time for all by gate-crashing and generally acting like soccer hooligans that just ran out of beer. But it's kind of fun to hear Phil, Bobby (and even Jerry) read this jerk the riot act, and when Jerry heads right into the opening notes of "Stagger Lee", it's back to an excellent show.
BTW, my all-time favorite admonishment from band to crowd is found on a recent Dicks Picks show from 1974--I think it's Philly or Jersey--at the end of an excellent Eyes of the World, when Bobby warns the crowd that the fence up front has sharp jagged edges "and if you try to climb it,it's gonna cut ya." Then after a second or two--during which some mentally-challenged individual apparently didn't heed that warning and complained about the harm he suffered as a result, Bobby says "WELL, DON'T ClIMB THE FENCE THEN, IDIOT!"
Sometimes tough love was the only way to go!
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nice upgrade from the other sbd source found here. this is the one you want.